LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia: Amid the ongoing conflict in Myanmar, there is “no reason” to change the format of only inviting Myanmar to Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings at a non-political level, said Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday .
“I do not expect this time to be easier to solve. And we have to be patient. And we must be able to maintain a consistent rational policy, in order to derive the best outcome for Myanmar and for ASEAN,” he said. Speaking about how Singapore would help Timor-Leste in gaining ASEAN membership, Mr Lee highlighted the special technical assistancethat Singapore launched to train Timor-Leste officials in ASEAN knowledge and skills training, as well as education capacity building.
With ASEAN having grown in so many directions and cooperation frameworks spanning various fields, Timor-Leste officials must be armed with the know-how and expertise to participate in ASEAN meetings and “make a sensible contribution”, or even to uphold their own interest and negotiate in “an informed way” to reach a “proper outcome”, he said.
“The more troubled the world is, the more you need a safety life raft. And ASEAN is our life raft; it is the life raft for all ASEAN members. Because each one of us, in a global context, we are not that big,” he told reporters.